“Jew of the Stock Exchange” – An Anti-Semitic Candlestick Hinting at Jewish Blame for the Vienna Stock Market Crash. Vienna, 19th Century. A Jewish figure with stereotypical face: a long nose, sidelocks, and dressed as a wealthy man, holding his coat closed with one hand and in the back with the other. At the base, the word “Hausse!” is engraved, referring to the “Jew of the Stock Exchange.”
After the significant crash of the Vienna Stock Exchange in 1873 and the ensuing economic crisis, Jews were identified as scapegoats, accused of having a direct global influence on the stock market. On May 9, 1873, the Vienna Stock Exchange collapsed, unable to sustain the bubble of over-expansion, bankruptcies, and speculative investments. A series of bank liquidity shortages followed the crash, reducing the capital necessary for business credit. This sparked the most severe outbreak of anti-Semitism in Germany and France since the Crusades or the Black Death. The agitators claimed that Jews were “immoral” and that their successes in recent decades were due to cunning schemes. According to Volker Ullrich, historian of Bismarck’s Empire, the outbreak of anti-Semitism was the “most serious and enduring consequence” of the financial events, becoming a “key element of the political culture” of the German Empire until its demise in 1918.
For similar examples, see: Antijudischer Nippes und populare Judenbilder from the Finkelstein Collection, item no. 75. Also see The Jew in Antisemitic Art: The Peter Ehrenthal Collection, page 46, and Sotheby’s catalogue from the Important Judaica Sale, held in Tel Aviv on April 15, 1998, item no. 207.
Height: 16 cm. Light stains on the base. Good condition.
